Zaha Hadid Architects Heydar Aliyev Center

Zaha Hadid: Heydar Aliyev Centre is devoted to the new cultural center designed by Zaha Hadid in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. As one of the most important cultural centers in the country, the building houses a variety of institutions under one roof. With the design, the renowned architect won the architecture competition in 2007. Inside its surface of fiberglass-reinforced concrete the building contains an auditorium that seats over a thousand, a conference center, a museum, and a library. Its open, inviting, and curvilinear design, which picks up and expands on forms from the surrounding environment, strongly differentiates the building from the city’s monumental architecture of the Soviet era.
Photographs by Hélène Binet and Iwan Baan display the building in all of its facets, making it possible for the reader to experience its formal, haptic, and spatial qualities. Essays explain conceptual and technical aspects of this impressive piece of architecture.

Zaha Hadid, born in 1950 in Baghdad, is one of the most influential architects of our time. Her international breakthrough came with the Vitra Fire Station in Weil am Rhein. Among her most recent buildings are the Riverside Museum in Glasgow, the MAXXI Museum of Art in Rome, and the Guangzhou Opera House. She was the first woman to win the Pritzker Prize (2004). Hadid lives and works in London.

Zaha M. Hadid

Zaha Hadid, born in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1950, began her study of architecture in 1972 at the Architectural Association in London and was awarded with the Diploma Prize in 1977. She then joined the Office of Metropolitan Architecture, began teaching at the Architectural Association and later led her own studio at the AA London until 1987. Her international breakthrough came with the Vitra Fire Station in Weil am Rhein. She was the first woman to win the Pritzker Prize (2004) and has received many more awards for her work and is one of the most influental architects of our time.

Hélène Binet

Hélène Binet was born in 1959 and she is of both Swiss and French descent. She studied photography in Rome where she grew up. In 1986 she turned towards architectural photography working with Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind and many more. She is now based in London where she works as an independent photographer.

Iwan Baan

Iwan Baan, born 1975, is an architecture and documentary photographer. His photographs are published regularly in architectural magazines and newspapers, among them are Domus, a+u, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. He has worked for renowned architecture offices like SANAA, Rem Koolhaas/OMA, Herzog & de Meuron, Toyo Ito, and architects like Steven Holl and Zaha Hadid. In his photographs he focuses on the connection between architecture and the surrounding environment. Instead of isolating the built structure he embeds it in history and context.